“My father? My father’sdead.”
But as I spit out that last word, a shock of cold sweeps through my body. Way back, when Dad was still with us—didn’t he tell me stories about his sister a few times?
A distant memory wavers up: drying fingerpaint itching at my face and arms, Dad’s buoyant guffaw.“It’s not so bad. Your Aunt Daphne smeared paint across our whole hallway back home when she was your age.”
Her face has tightened at my words. She’s older than Dad was before he died, but… his hair was the exact same shade of brown, wasn’t it, just shorter and tamer? His eyes were a deep green that I inherited, but wide set like hers, and the shape of her nose and jaw…
My fingers curl against the tabletop. Even if it’s true, her being family doesn’t justify her dragging me off to wherever the hell this is.
Daphne’s next words come out quiet. “He isn’t dead here.”
It takes several seconds for the statement to sink in. “What—what the fuck are you talking about?”
She’s insane. That’s the only explanation. I’ve been kidnapped by a madwoman, and radiants only know what she’s done with my matches, and?—
Daphne steps closer to me but halts when I flinch. “I should have handled this better. It’s the first time— I’ve never stretched my magic anywhere near this far before. I wasn’t even sure it would work. Elodie, this isn’t the world you’re used to.”
Yeah, I’m still going with insane.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand.
Her tone turns almost breathless. “Did you know there are all kinds of parallel realities unfurling alongside our own? An infinite number, multiplying with every decision, every branch in a path?—”
I finally manage to shift forward onto my feet without teetering. The briefest flick of my gaze shows me a door a few paces beyond the cabinet. “I don’t want a physics lecture. Just let me go.”
Daphne gives me a smile that seems impossibly sad. “I can’t, not until you understand. This isn’t your original reality. I reached through the strands, found you, and pulled you here.”
Not just insane.Batshitinsane.
Sure, in my research into every oddity humanity has dreamed up, I’ve come across theories about alternate universes. That doesn’t mean I think it’s remotely possible a person could jump from one to another. We’re not in a Spider-Man movie.
My muscles coil, ready to spring. “Last chance. Get out of my way.”
My supposed aunt moves to the right. My gaze trails after her automatically, confirming the door that’s my likely way out—and snags on the mutilated form on the other table.
A fresh surge of nausea freezes me in place.
Somehow, Daphne’s face gets even sadder. “You saw before. Your mind had trouble accepting it. I needed her here to help me find you.”
Her. A twisted leg, a length of split flesh with fragments of bone poking through. Hips caved in on one side. Chest a mass of bloody shreds of fabric and gleams of splintered ribs.
The meaty odor congeals in my nose. Clenching my jaw so hard it aches, I force myself to look all the way to her face.
My face.
Whatever happened to this woman, it barely damaged her head. Blood flecks her cheeks, and more is matted into a patch of her dark brown hair, but she’s still perfectly recognizable.
Her vacant eyes, dark green muddied by an inner ring of brown, match the ones I see in the mirror every day. The slope of her nose, the curve of her cheekbones, the slightly knobby chin… She’s a perfect replica.
No, not exactly perfect. Through the blare of bewildered horror, my attention catches on the ashy highlights streaked artfully through this woman’s hair—a style I’ve never attempted. A plum shade of lipstick I’ve never worn darkens her lips.
Me, but not quite. A little different.
Like I might have been in some other reality that branched off in a different direction…
Daphne starts talking again. “It happened just a few hours ago. She was out—I don’t know what she was doing. She called me, said she thought someone was following her, that she was nervous. She asked me to come pick her up.”
Her voice falters. She drags in a shaky breath before she continues. “When I got to the corner she told me she’d be waiting on, I found her on the sidewalk like this. Hit by a car. It must have been on purpose. She was gone. There was nothing I could do. Nothing except… this. You.”
